Bill to Gag Media Stirs Row

The bill suggests creating an authority with sweeping powers to regulate the media, including the ability to ban or suspend coverage of an event or incident that “may pose a threat to national security from foreign or internal sources.”

A private member’s bill that is set to be introduced in Parliament would impose major restrictions on freedom of expression for the Indian media in the name of safeguarding national security.

The Print and Electronic Media Standards and Regulation Bill 2012, better known as the media regulation bill, is set to be introduced in Parliament by a Congress party lawmaker, Meenakshi Natarajan, the Indian Express reported. The bill was originally meant to be introduced last week, the newspaper said.

The bill, a draft of which was reviewed by the Indian Express, suggests creating an authority with sweeping powers to regulate the media, including the ability to ban or suspend coverage of an event or incident that “may pose a threat to national security from foreign or internal sources.”

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A private member’s bill is a piece of legislation introduced by a lawmaker in either house of Parliament without the backing of the governing majority. As such, these bills are rarely passed.

Some of the provisions in the 14-page bill, dubbed “draconian” by the Indian Express, calls on the media to exercise “due care while reporting news items related to judiciary and legislature, maintaining complete transparency and impartiality in internal functioning and prohibition of reporting news which are obscene, vulgar or offensive.”

The bill, if implemented, would impose hefty fines on erring organizations and suspend or even cancel media licenses should authorities find they fail to comply with the set guidelines.

The seven-member regulatory body, which would be selected by a panel consisting of a Supreme Court’s justice, federal information and broadcasting minister and three members appointed by the central government, would have powers equivalent to that of a civil court. It would have the right to seek documents and records from media organizations while being exempt from the Right to Information Act.

The stated aim of the bill is “ensure good quality reporting, which does not only feed news according to television rating points but also, in accordance with issues of prime national importance”.

India’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party said the ruling Congress party needed to clarify its stand on the issue since the bill was introduced by a lawmaker considered close to party general secretary Rahul Gandhi.

“We still do not know with what intention this bill was to be moved in parliament. Rahul Gandhi should make his stand clear on his close aide’s views,” BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy told reporters Wednesday.

The Congress party dismissed the BJP’s charges as baseless: “The bill emanates from Meenakshi Natarajan’s personal views and does not reflect Rahul’s views,” Congress spokesman Janardhan Dwivedi said on television news channels Wednesday.

Many were outraged by the bill, seeing it as a way for the Congress party-led government to test the waters on how far it could go to restrict freedom of expression. “Why aren’t young people out on the streets protesting the noxious Natarajan bill, the government’s newest test balloon?,” filmmaker Pritish Nandy questions on Twitter.

Political analyst Balvir Arora, who works with Institute of Social Sciences, a New Delhi-based think-tank, said that improving self-regulation was the best way forward. “The fact that parliament is leading to curb the freedom of press is a worrying factor,” Mr. Arora said.

The Indian media is mostly self-regulated. The existing bodies for regulation of media, such as the Press Council of India and the News Broadcasting Standards Authority, simply issue non-binding guidelines on reporting.

Many in India’s ruling class have been debating the possibility of placing some restrictions on the media.

Recently, Markandey Katju, head of the Press Council of India and former Supreme Court justice argued that the media “was not working for the interest of the people” and “sometimes they are positively working in an anti-people manner.” In an interview to an Indian news channel this week, Mr. Katju said it was “high time” Indian media be subject to regulations.

“There is a difference between control and regulation. In the former, there is no freedom while the latter has freedom but it is subject to reasonable restriction in public interest. In Indian democracy everyone is accountable; so how can media alone be unaccountable,” Mr. Katju said.

In India, private member’s bills are rarely passed in parliament. According to PRS Legislative Research, a New Delhi-based independent legislative organization, only 14 private member’s bills have been passed in India since 1947, when it became independent from British rule. The last private member’s bill was passed in 1970.

“Of the 300 odd private members’ bills introduced in the 14th Lok Sabha, barely 4% were discussed; 96% lapsed without even a single debate in the House,” PRS said.

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